


Acacia

by bemusedlybespectacled (ardentintoxication)



Series: Hayffie Challenge Daily Prompts [6]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Flowers 'verse, Hayffie, Hurt/Comfort, Quintuple Drabble, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-26
Updated: 2012-04-26
Packaged: 2017-11-04 09:15:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardentintoxication/pseuds/bemusedlybespectacled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt "<a href="http://hayffiechallenge.tumblr.com/post/21781066991/prompt-6-effie-is-not-really-from-the-capitol">effie is not really from the capitol</a>." "She doesn't tell him that she loves him."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acacia

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in the same universe as _The Language of Flowers._ If you haven't read it already, read that one first.

She doesn't tell him that she loves him.

She doesn't tell him because there are cameras and microphones and what a scandal for him, for a Gamemaker to be in love with a Mentor. She doesn't tell him because she knows that if he's seen to be that valuable to her, he'll be killed. He'll be killed immediately, no pause for torture, just found in his house in a pool of his own blood like her father, with a rose beside him. She doesn't tell him because she doesn't know if he loves her back.

And she doesn't tell him because she isn't sure herself.

So when she takes him up to her room, she doesn't say  _I love you_. She only holds his hand and squeezes. And when she leads him to her bed, she doesn't say  _I love you_. She pushes him on the bed, unbuttons each button and unties every knot with hands that do not shake with drunkenness or fear. And later, when he is inside her and her hands are pressed tightly into his shoulder blades, she doesn't say _I love you._ She whispers  _please_  and  _yes_  and  _there_  and sometimes she doesn't say any words at all.

After that, she tries to convince the sponsors to help - as she always has - and waiting for the signal from 13. When it comes, she leaves him behind and she knows - oh, she  _knows_  - that despite her best efforts, he could be killed for that night alone.

-

She says  _I love you_  by waiting for him to get out of surgery, by tracing the contours of his face with one hand as he sleeps, by holding his hand as he wakes up.

He smiles. It is weak and pained, but he tries. "You still drunk, sweetheart?"

"No," she says, and looks away. "I... they put me through detox. To make me stop." He nods, not knowing what to say. "But I was already going to stop, anyway. Because of what you said, once."

"Why?" he asks. He might already know, he might have guessed, but he has to hear her say it to be sure.

"Because I love you." It's the first time she has said it aloud in a long while, and the words are unfamiliar on her tongue.

He looks as if he doesn't know whether to keep smiling or to be serious. He opts to simply squeeze the hand she's holding and say, "I was waiting for that."

She  _does_  start crying, then, and laughing at the same time, and he brings up his other hand to slide his thumb across her cheekbone, moves from her face to the back of her skull, and brings her down to kiss him.

It is her first not tarnished by the taste of the Capitol. It is quiet and soft and waterstained. There will be time for other kisses later, kisses that are more passionate and more precise. There will be time for more  _I love you's_.

**Author's Note:**

> Acacia, in floriography, means "secret love."


End file.
